Summary of Sorizava theory principles

Sorizava.md

Sorizava Theory

This is a summary of the theory principles from the book 디지털 영상속기사 Easy Start! (Digital Video Stenographer Easy Start!), published by Sorizava Co Ltd, machine-translated where necessary. This is my best attempt at interpreting the contents without actually being fluent in Korean; some of the information may not be 100% accurate.

Basic Theory

Layout

Sorizava uses a phonetic-orthographic hangeul layout, with initial letters on the left-hand side, finals on the right-hand side, and vowels on the thumbs. In the book, the letters are described variously by their roles (자음/子音 jaeum, 모음/母音 moeum, 받침 batchim) or by their positions in hangeul syllables (초성/初聲 choseong, 중성/中聲 jungseong, 종성/終聲 jongseong); here I choose to refer to them as initials, vowels, and finals, for consistency and familiarity to English stenographers.

Note that there are two keys named ㅋ on the left-hand side; the ㅋ to the right of ㄱ is considered a final ㅋ, and is often labeled ㈊ or ㉪ on keyboards to distinguish. In this documentation, I use ㅋ to designate the initial key on the top row, and ㉪ for the final key.

The home position and finger assignments on the Sorizava keyboard are as follows:

Note that the additional columns on either side can be pressed by stretching the index finger over, without shifting the entire hand. No outlines exist that require pressing two non-adjacent keys in the inner columns.

There does not seem to be a single canonical steno order mentioned in the book; on the contrary, the book specifically mentions that the keys can be entered in any order, and many of the outlines shown in the book follow the order that makes most sense for the word being written. While a Plover implementation will need to settle on a canonical order for the ease of implementing dictionaries, I will follow the book's convention.

Phonetics

The Sorizava theory operates on the syllable composition principle: to write a hangeul syllable, we press the initial consonant, the vowel, and the final consonant in the appropriate sections of the keyboard in one stroke.

For example, to write the word 한글 hangeul, we first press the initial ㅎ, ㅏ, and final ㄴ keys to get 한, and then press the initial ㄱ, ㅡ, and final ㄹ keys to get 글.

There is no initial ㅇ key; since the theory is phonetic, syllables containing initial ㅇ can be written by simply writing the vowel and final. For example, 안 is written with just the ㅏ and final ㄴ keys.

To simplify notation further in this document, I will follow conventions used in English steno notation and use hyphens to indicate initial and final keys:

Word	Initial	Vowel	Final	Combined
한	ㅎ-	ㅏ	-ㄴ	ㅎㅏㄴ
글	ㄱ-	ㅡ	-ㄹ	ㄱㅡㄹ
안		ㅏ	-ㄴ	ㅏㄴ

Complex initials

Complex initials in hangeul are composed of double initials, or ssangjaeum (쌍자음/雙子音). These can be written by combining the single version of the letter with the letter immediately below it, pressing simultaneously on the crack between them:

ᄊ	ᄄ	ᄍ	ᄁ	ᄈ
ᄉᄆ-	ᄃᄅ-	ᄌᄂ-	ᄀᄒ-	ᄇᄀ-

For example, 쌍 can be written with the ᄉᄆ- initial: ᄉᄆㅏㅇ.

Complex finals

There are two types of complex finals in hangeul: double finals, or ssangbatchim (쌍받침), and compound finals, or gyeopbatchim (겹받침). There are only two double finals, ㄲ and ㅆ, and both can be written as is using the corresponding final keys. The rest, however, have to be written with multiple keys.

To write a compound final, we can simply press both of the letters that compose that final:

ᆪ	ᆬ	ᆭ	ᆰ	ᆱ	ᆲ	ᆳ	ᆴ	ᆵ	ᆶ	ᆹ
-ㄱㅅ	-ㄴㅈ	-ㄴㅎ	-ㄹㄱ	-ㄹㅁ	-ㄹㅂ	-ㄹㅅ	-ㄹㅌ	-ㄹㅍ	-ㄹㅎ	-ㅂㅅ

For example, 많 can be written with the -ㄴㅎ final: ㅁㅏㄴㅎ.

Complex vowels

Hangeul vowels can be categorized into compound vowels, or gyeopholsori (겹홀소리), and iotized or Y-series vowels.

Compound vowels can be visually decomposed into their constituent simple vowels, and we would write them the same way in steno:

ᅢ	ᅦ	ᅪ	ᅯ	ᅱ	ᅬ	ᅫ	ᅰ
ㅏㅣ	ㅓㅣ	ㅗㅏ	ㅜㅓ	ㅜㅣ	ㅗㅣ	ㅗㅏㅣ	ㅜㅓㅣ

Y-series vowels are written as follows:

ᅣ	ᅧ	ᅭ	ᅲ	ᅤ	ᅨ
ㅏㅡ	ㅓㅡ	ㅗㅡ	ㅜㅡ	ᅡㅓ	ᅡㅓᅵ

Spacing and Punctuation

Due to the compositional and agglutinative nature of the Korean language, Sorizava requires explicit spacing. Some briefs, such as conjugation outlines, may insert a space after, and others may delete spaces to attach to the previous word. Entries below and further in the documentation will explicitly mark spaces (␣) and attachments (⌫).

␣	⌫	⌫.␣	⌫,␣	⌫?␣	⌫!␣	⌫%
-ㄴㄹ -ㄴㄹㅅ	㉪*	-ㅇㅁ -ㅇㅁㄷ	-ㅎㅌㅊ	ㅎㄴㄹ	ㄱㅈㄷ	ㅂㅋㅌ

* This is not a standard Sorizava outline; the keyboard has a Backspace key outside the steno section of the layout, and the book has no mention of a Backspace outline.

- (hyphen)	:	(	)	⌫. (decimal point)	⌫, (thousands separator)
-ㅍㅂ	-ㅂㅈ	ㄴㅎᅴ	-ㅆㅇㅁ	㉪ㅇㅁㄷ ㉪ㅇㅁ	㉪ㅎㅌㅊ

Numerals

The top row of the layout is used for numerals:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	10
ㅊ-	ㅌ-	ㅋ-	ㅂ-	ㅍ-	-ㄲ	-ㅎ	-ㅌ	-ㅊ	-ㅍ	ㅊ-ㅍ

Numbers with multiple digits can be written by pressing keys in sequence. It is not possible to write multi-digit numbers in single strokes.

Advanced Theory

The outlines and theory rules above should be enough to write all of the Korean language. The theory rules below are not mandatory, but they do significantly increase speed.

Particles

Particles are mainly written with final keys if they have consonants, or vowels plus ㉪ if they only have vowels. Particles automatically attach to the previous word.

Some particles also take on a different form depending on whether the previous word has a final consonant. Both forms are listed in their entries below, but the correct form is automatically chosen.

⌫이␣	⌫가␣	⌫는␣	⌫은␣	⌫다.␣	⌫고␣	⌫지␣	⌫의␣
㉪ㅣ	-ㄱㄲ	-ㄴ	-ㅇㄴ	-ㅂ	-ㄱ	-ㅈ	㉪ᅴ
⌫를␣ ⌫을␣	⌫므로␣ ⌫으로␣	⌫로서␣	⌫로써␣	⌫서␣	⌫써␣	⌫므로서␣ ⌫으로서␣	⌫므로써␣ ⌫으로써␣
-ㄹ	-ㅇㄹ	-ㄹㅅ	-ㄹㅆ	-ㅅ	-ㅆ	-ㅇㄹㅅ	-ㅇㄹㅆ
⌫도␣	⌫게␣	⌫와␣ ⌫과␣	⌫에␣	⌫며␣	⌫면␣	⌫면서␣
-ㄷ	-ㄱㅆ	㉪ㅗㅏ	㉪ㅓㅣ	-ㅁ	-ㅁㄴ	-ㅁㅅ

⌫이고␣	⌫이나␣	⌫이다	⌫이다.␣	⌫이며␣	⌫이지␣	⌫이라는␣	⌫이라도␣	⌫이라고␣
㉪ㅣㄱ	㉪ㅣㄴ	㉪ㅣㄷ	㉪ㅣㅂ	㉪ㅣㅁ	㉪ㅣㅈ	㉪ㅣㄹㄴ	㉪ㅣㄹㄷ	㉪ㅣㄹㄱ
⌫에는␣	⌫에도␣	⌫에서␣	⌫에게␣	⌫에서는␣	⌫에서도␣
㉪ㅓᅵㄴ	㉪ㅓᅵㄷ	㉪ㅓᅵㅅ	㉪ㅓᅵㄱㅆ	㉪ㅓᅵㅅㄴ	㉪ㅓᅵㅅㄷ
⌫으나␣	⌫으며␣
㉪ㅡㄴ	㉪ㅡㅁ

Adverbs

Below is a list of 그ㄹ- adverbs, which are all written with ㄱㄹ- briefs:

그리	그리고␣	그러나␣	그런데␣	그래서␣	그래도␣	그러므로␣	그러면␣	그러면서␣
ㄱㄹ-	ㄱㄹ-ㄱ	ㄱㄹ-ㄴ	ㄱㄹ-ㄷ	ㄱㄹ-ㅅ	ㄱㄹㅏㅣㄷ	ㄱㄹㅓㅇㄹ	ㄱㄹㅓㅁㄴ	ㄱㄹㅓㅁㅅ

Verb Endings

었	한다
-ㅇㅆ	ㅎㅏㄴㄷ

Some common formal sentence endings can also be written in a single stroke:

⌫습니다.␣	⌫습니까?␣	입니다.␣	입니까?␣	합니다.␣	합니까?␣
-ㅅㄷ	-ㅅㅊ	ㅣㅂㅈ	ㅣㅂㅍ	ㅎㅏㅂㅈ	ㅎㅏㅂㅍ

These patterns can also be extended to endings for any verb, by writing one of the complex finals below as part of a syllable:

～ᄇ니다.␣	～ᄇ니까?␣	～ᄂ다	～ᄂ다.␣
-ㅂㅈ	-ㅂㅍ	-ㄴㄷ	-ㄴㅂ

For example, 갑니다.␣ can be written ㄱㅏㅂㅈ (가 + ᄇ니다.␣).

Numerals, Extended

Years

To write years, add -ㄴ to the numeral in the same stroke:

(1년)␣	(2년)␣	(3년)␣
ㅊ-ㄴ	ㅌ-ㄴ	ㅋ-ㄴ

Ordinals

To write ordinals with the period style (for example, 3.), add -ㅇㅁ to the numeral into the same stroke. This applies to both Arabic numerals and the 가-나-다 ordinal system.

1.␣	2.␣	3.␣	4.␣	5.␣
ㅊ-ㅇㅁ	ㅌ-ㅇㅁ	ㅋ-ㅇㅁ	ㅂ-ㅇㅁ	ㅍ-ㅇㅁ
가.␣	나.␣	다.␣	라.␣	마.␣	바.␣	사.␣
ㄱㅏㅇㅁ	ㄴㅏㅇㅁ	ㄷㅏㅇㅁ	ㄹㅏㅇㅁ	ㅁㅏㅇㅁ	ㅂㅏㅇㅁ	ㅅㅏㅇㅁ
아.␣	자.␣	차.␣	카.␣	타.␣	파.␣	하.␣
ㅏㅇㅁ	ㅈㅏㅇㅁ	ㅊㅏㅇㅁ	ㅋㅏㅇㅁ	ㅌㅏㅇㅁ	ㅍㅏㅇㅁ	ㅎㅏㅇㅁ

Unfortunately, ordinals 6 through 10 can not be written in one stroke.

To write ordinals with the parenthesized style, the theory officially uses the 9 and 0 keys, or ( and ), located above the steno layout. These outlines might not be practical on just the steno layout.

(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)		(주)
ㅊ-()	ㅌ-()	ㅋ-()	ㅂ-()	ㅍ-()		ㅈㅜ()
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
ㅊ-)	ㅌ-)	ㅋ-)	ㅂ-)	ㅍ-)
(가)␣	(나)␣	(다)␣	(라)␣	(마)␣	(바)␣	(사)␣
ㄱㅏ()	ㄴㅏ()	ㄷㅏ()	ㄹㅏ()	ㅁㅏ()	ㅂㅏ()	ㅅㅏ()
(아)␣	(자)␣	(차)␣	(카)␣	(타)␣	(파)␣	(하)␣
ㅏ()	ㅈㅏ()	ㅊㅏ()	ㅋㅏ()	ㅌㅏ()	ㅍㅏ()	ㅎㅏ()

Common Verbs

Some common verb stems have an initial brief, and can also be combined with some finals to write conjugated forms.

하-	되-	보-	주-	않-	없-
ㅎ	ㄷ	ㅂ	ㅈ	ㄴㅎ	ㅂㅅ
있-	것-	했-	적-	같-	좋-
ㅅㅁ	ㄱㅅ	ㅎㅅ	ㅈㄱ	ㄱㅌ	ㅈㅎ

	하- ㅎ	되- ㄷ	보- ㅂ	주- ㅈ
∅	하 ㅎ	되 ㄷ	보 ㅂ	주 ㅈ
-ㄱ	하고␣ ㅎ-ㄱ	되고␣ ㄷ-ㄱ	보고␣ ㅂ-ㄱ	주고␣ ㅈ-ㄱ
-ㄱㅆ	하게␣ ㅎ-ㄱㅆ	되게␣ ㄷ-ㄱㅆ	보게␣ ㅂ-ㄱㅆ	주게␣ ㅈ-ㄱㅆ
-ㄴ	하는␣ ㅎ-ㄴ	되는␣ ㄷ-ㄴ	보는␣ ㅂ-ㄴ	주는␣ ㅈ-ㄴ
-ㄷ	하다 ㅎ-ㄷ	되다 ㄷ-ㄷ	보다 ㅂ-ㄷ	주다 ㅈ-ㄷ
-ㅂ	하다.␣ ㅎ-ㅂ	되다.␣ ㄷ-ㅂ	보다.␣ ㅂ-ㅂ	주다.␣ ㅈ-ㅂ
-ㅇ	하여␣ ㅎ-ㅇ	되어 ㄷ-ㅇ	보아 ㅂ-ㅇ	주어 ㅈ-ㅇ
-ㅆ	하였 ㅎ-ㅆ	되었 ㄷ-ㅆ	보었 ㅂ-ㅆ	주었 ㅈ-ㅆ
-ㅁ	하며␣ ㅎ-ㅁ	되며␣ ㄷ-ㅁ	보며␣ ㅂ-ㅁ	주며␣ ㅈ-ㅁ
-ㅁㄴ	하면␣ ㅎ-ㅁㄴ	되면␣ ㄷ-ㅁㄴ	보면␣ ㅂ-ㅁㄴ	주면␣ ㅈ-ㅁㄴ
-ㅁㅅ	하면서␣ ㅎ-ㅁㅅ	되면서␣ ㄷ-ㅁㅅ	보면서␣ ㅂ-ㅁㅅ	주면서␣ ㅈ-ㅁㅅ
-ㅈ	하지␣ ㅎ-ㅈ	되지␣ ㄷ-ㅈ		주지␣ ㅈ-ㅈ

	않- ㄴㅎ	없- ㅂㅅ	있- ㅅㅁ	했- ㅎㅅ
∅	않 ㄴㅎ	없 ㅂㅅ	있 ㅅㅁ	했 ㅎㅅ
-ㄱ	않고␣ ㄴㅎ-ㄱ	없고␣ ㅂㅅ-ㄱ	있고␣ ㅅㅁ-ㄱ	했고␣ ㅎㅅ-ㄱ
-ㄱㅆ	않게␣ ㄴㅎ-ㄱㅆ	없게␣ ㅂㅅ-ㄱㅆ	있게␣ ㅅㅁ-ㄱㅆ
-ㄴ	않는␣ ㄴㅎ-ㄴ	없는␣ ㅂㅅ-ㄴ	있는␣ ㅅㅁ-ㄴ	했는␣ ㅎㅅ-ㄴ
-ㄷ	않다 ㄴㅎ-ㄷ	없다 ㅂㅅ-ㄷ	있다 ㅅㅁ-ㄷ	했다 ㅎㅅ-ㄷ
-ㅂ	않다.␣ ㄴㅎ-ㅂ	없다.␣ ㅂㅅ-ㅂ	있다.␣ ㅅㅁ-ㅂ	했다.␣ ㅎㅅ-ㅂ
-ㅇ	않아␣ ㄴㅎ-ㅇ	없어␣ ㅂㅅ-ㅇ	있어 ㅅㅁ-ㅇ	했어 ㅎㅅ-ㅇ
-ㅆ	않았 ㄴㅎ-ㅆ	없었 ㅂㅅ-ㅆ	있었 ㅅㅁ-ㅆ	했었 ㅎㅅ-ㅆ
-ㄹ		없을␣ ㅂㅅ-ㄹ	있을␣ ㅅㅁ-ㄹ	했을␣ ㅎㅅ-ㄹ
-ㅅㄷ	않습니다.␣ ㄴㅎ-ㅅㄷ	없습니다.␣ ㅂㅅ-ㅅㄷ	있습니다.␣ ㅅㅁ-ㅅㄷ	했습니다.␣ ㅎㅅ-ㅅㄷ
-ㅅㅊ	않습니까?␣ ㄴㅎ-ㅅㅊ	없습니까?␣ ㅂㅅ-ㅅㅊ	있습니까?␣ ㅅㅁ-ㅅㅊ	했습니까?␣ ㅎㅅ-ㅅㅊ
-ㅈ	않지␣ ㄴㅎ-ㅈ	없지␣ ㅂㅅ-ㅈ	있지␣ ㅅㅁ-ㅈ	했지␣ ㅎㅅ-ㅈ
ㅣ		없이␣ ㅂㅅㅣ

	것- ㄱㅅ	적- ㅈㄱ	같- ㄱㅌ	좋- ㅈㅎ
∅	것 ㄱㅅ	적 ㅈㄱ	같 ㄱㅌ	좋 ㅈㅎ
-ㄱ		적고␣ ㅈㄱ-ㄱ	같고␣ ㄱㅌ-ㄱ	좋고␣ ㅈㅎ-ㄱ
-ㄱㅆ		적게␣ ㅈㄱ-ㄱㅆ	같게␣ ㄱㅌ-ㄱㅆ
-ㅇㄴ	것은␣ ㄱㅅ-ㅇㄴ	적은␣ ㅈㄱ-ㅇㄴ	같은␣ ㄱㅌ-ㅇㄴ	좋은␣ ㅈㅎ-ㅇㄴ
-ㄷ	것도␣ ㄱㅅ-ㄷ	적다 ㅈㄱ-ㄷ	같다 ㄱㅌ-ㄷ	좋다 ㅈㅎ-ㄷ
-ㅂ		적다.␣ ㅈㄱ-ㅂ	같다.␣ ㄱㅌ-ㅂ	좋다.␣ ㅈㅎ-ㅂ
-ㅇ		적어␣ ㅈㄱ-ㅇ	같아 ㄱㅌ-ㅇ
-ㅆ				좋았 ㅈㅎ-ㅆ
-ㄹ	것을␣ ㄱㅅ-ㄹ	적을␣ ㅈㄱ-ㄹ	같을␣ ㄱㅌ-ㄹ	좋을␣ ㅈㅎ-ㄹ
-ㅇㄹ	것으로␣ ㄱㅅ-ㅇㄹ	적으로␣ ㅈㄱ-ㅇㄹ	같으므로␣ ㄱㅌㅡㅇㄹ
-ㅅㄷ			같습니다.␣ ㄱㅌ-ㅅㄷ	좋습니다.␣ ㅈㅎ-ㅅㄷ
-ㅅㅊ			같습니까?␣ ㄱㅌ-ㅅㅊ	좋습니까?␣ ㅈㅎ-ㅅㅊ
-ㅈ				좋지␣ ㅈㅎ-ㅈ
ㅣ	것이␣ ㄱㅅㅣ	적이 ㅈㄱㅣ
ㅣㄴ	것인 ㄱㅅㅣㄴ	적인␣ ㅈㄱㅣㄴ
ㅣㄷ	것이다 ㄱㅅㅣㄷ	적이다 ㅈㄱㅣㄷ
ㅣㅂ	것이다.␣ ㄱㅅㅣㅂ	적이다.␣ ㅈㄱㅣㅂ
ㅓㅣ	것에␣ ㄱㅅㅓㅣ
ㅗㅏ	것과␣ ㄱㅅㅗㅏ
ㅡ		적으 ㅈㄱㅡ	같으 ㄱㅌㅡ	좋으 ㅈㅎㅡ
ㅡㄴㄱ			같으니까␣ ㄱㅌㅡㄴㄱ	좋으니까␣ ㅈㅎㅡㄴㄱ
ㅡㅇㄹ				좋으므로␣ ㅈㅎㅡㅇㄹ

Some complex finals can also be added to the verb stems in the same stroke to produce the following endings:

⌫다고␣	⌫다는␣	⌫다며␣	⌫다면␣	⌫라고␣	⌫라도␣	⌫라며␣
-ㄷㄱ	-ㄷㄴ	-ㄷㅁ	-ㄷㅁㄴ	-ㄹㄱ	-ㄹㄷ	-ㄹㅁ

For example, 했다고␣ can be written ㅎㅅ-ㄷㄱ (했 + ⌫다고␣).

Conjugated Finals

The following complex finals can be used as part of a syllable to write more conjugations:

⌫는␣	⌫게␣	⌫면␣	⌫면서␣	⌫니까␣	⌫고자␣	⌫처럼␣
-ㄴㅇ	-ㄱㅆ	-ㅁㄴ	-ㅁㅅ	-ㄴㄱ	-ㄱㅈ	-ㅊㄹ
～ᄅ␣수␣	～ᄅ␣때␣	～ᄅ지␣	～ᄅ까␣	⌫지만␣	⌫.␣
-ㄹㅅ	-ㄹㄷ	-ㄹㅈ	-ㄹㄲ	-ㅈㅁ	-ㅇㅁ

For example, 저는␣ can be written ㅈㅓㄴㅇ (저 + ⌫는␣).